Hi from Suwarrow (Suvarov) Island. We have been a week in this small island paradise and loving every minute of it. Being isolated, the sailing fleet tends to become more of a community that experiences things together and we have not enjoyed this since the Indian Ocean. There are two rangers here (Harry and Charlie) representing the Cook Island Government as Suwarrow Island is a Cook Islands National Park that abounds in all things marine, terrestial coconut crabs and about a trillion sea birds that feed on the immense schools of bait fish in the surrounding seas.

Keely and I have been fishing most days trying to get our catch to the surface before the Black Tip Reef Sharks steal it. Yesterday we caught a 2m Wahoo but it took one look at our 3m dingy and decided it would rather continue swimming. Charlie and I went out after Tuna a few mornings ago and got 2.2 large Tuna with a 3m Tiger Shark claiming the remaining 0.8 fish. Harry also caught a large Wahoo and the entire fleet here of 8 sailboats and one trawler went ashore for a BBQ with Harry and Charlie and a real party developed with everyone dancing and singing along to Harry on the Ukelelie and Guitar.

Two days out of Suwarrow we were "pooped" by a larger than average wave of over 5m and it washed the starboard spinnaker sheet over the side with the lock cleat also loose. Luckily we had dropped the spinnaker and it was stowed on the tramps but the sheet wrapped around the dagger board and also the starboard propellor. The sheet was a 10mm piece of dyneema which is very strong and not unlike steel in the strength department. The problem was with the strong winds and heavy seas we had not realised what had happened and of course we tried unsucessfully to start the starboard saildrive. The engine ran but it conked out when in gear. No worries I thought, we can just cut it off when we get to Suwarrow. Arrive in Suwarrow to find that the dyneema has partially destroyed the propellor hub by forcing it apart like sqeezing a toothpaste tube. Strong stuff! We will arrange a new hub but the old one should be OK at low revs if we need to use it.

We all love the hookah gear. Keely swam with the sharks who became most inquisitive and we had to punch a few away. Gill is a great help as a diver and made the propellor removal and clean very easy. Tomorrow we will use it to swim with the manta rays about 400m away on a small reef from Chaotic Harmony.

Today we are going with Charlie to look at Whale Island which is unusual in that it is covered with whale bones. There are about 15 or so small islands in this atoll and only one of them has whale bones. They are naturally placed and the result of animals coming into the lagoon and all dying off the one island over the millenia. Weird but true.

The weather here is lovely at times with fresh trade winds and cool temps but at present we have a convergence zone utop us and it is stormy, showery and calm. A bit like Darwin in the early build up. We should go back to trade wind conditions by the weekend so we will sail further west to either Samoa or even on the Fiji and be back in the Eastern hemisphere and add that day we have lost as we have travelled east from Australia. The other seven sailboats all left in the last two days and we are by ourselves in paradise. I feel like building a treehouse and moving ashore like Tome Neale did here earlier.

The trip is nearly over so for those who are interested in a visit, now is the time to plan as we will be in Sydney in November or maybe even earlier.

Be good.